iPad to dominate the tablet market 'for the next 10 years'

Some analyst thinks so anyway

Apple's iPad will dominate the tablet market for the next decade, according to one analyst's calculations.

Charlie Wolf, analyst at Needham, has calculated that, even with other tablets including the Android and BlackBerry offerings gaining traction in the growing market, the iPad will only lose around 20 per cent of its share in the years up to 2020.

That means the iPad is set to hold over half of the tablet market for the foreseeable future, leaving the rest of it to be split between Android tablets, BlackBerry PlayBooks, HP TouchPads and Windows 8 slates when they finally begin to surface next year.

Top of the tablet pops

According to Wolf, despite the myriad new tablets making their way to shop shelves, only the iPad has managed to capture the public's interest:

"Future tablets are more likely to steal share from one another than from the iPad," he adds. "The tablet market has been inundated with new models… All of them have been greeted with a yawn and lacklustre sales."

He also cites Apple's well-stocked app store as a key factor in the iPad's current and future mega sales: "In the case of tablets, the only thing that matters - that turns what's otherwise a slab into a versatile device - are the apps.

"And the applications available on the tablets introduced this year number at best in the hundreds. In comparison, more than 100,000 applications are available on the iPad."

Anyone looking to snap up a tablet of their own should find our buyer's guide a handy steer in the right direction – even if you do end up buying an iPad anyway.